COURSE DESCRIPTION
Representing two or more clients in a business or commercial transaction is full of potential ethical traps. It’s essential that clients understand the potential for conflicts of interest, how confidential information is shared among the joint clients, how negotiating strategies may need to be altered because of the joint representation, and the real risk to the transaction itself if the clients eventually develop unresolvable disputes among themselves. Counseling clients about information flows and obtaining a written waiver of conflicts from all clients are essential first steps but not the end of the process. This program will provide you with a real world guide to representing two or more clients in a business or commercial transaction.
- Information flows and potential conflicts of interest
- Counseling clients about sharing of confidential information – and its implications
- Drafting conflict of interest waivers
- Attorney-client privilege issues involved in joint representations
- Negotiation ethics when representing multiple clients
- What to do when jointly represented clients disagree
Speaker:
William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management. He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for more than 25 years. He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com. Mr. Freivogel is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Champaign), where he received his B.S. and LL.B.